A close friend and I are writing different sub-genre books for the same continuity series. (Hi Eilis!) We have been critiquing each other after plotting and starting our books with no discussion or input from each other except several months ago we helped build the bible for the continuity series.

A definition break:

Continuity:  A series of books set in the same story universe by multiple authors, often with story arcs across a series, though not always

bible:  Information about the story universe written by someone and followed by all authors who are writing the books

Anyhow, we got through the first round of edits for each other. She read my chaps 1-2, I read her 1-4. We haven't supplied each other with outlines, synopses etc, just read the chapters cold. I was especially interested in how she's applying the story universe of Bounty Hunters Inc to her manuscript since we've only seen snippets of other works. Though the first couple of projects have been bought, they aren't out yet. After this first round of edits I was interested to see that our books were entirely different. Our styles and heroes were unique to our respective styles and our rhythms are so different since mine is erotica and hers is sci-fi romance.

We exchanged again. She's got my 3/4, I've read her 4-7 1/2. When I started writing this morning on chapter 5, I checked my outline, only to discover that we basically have the same plot! ooops! How funny that we'd come up with the same ideas to play with in this entire universe, even though our heros have different goals and we come at our plots from different angles. Since we haven't seen each other's outlines the similarities I've noticed may end up being handled entirely differently, but still.

I think I'm going to redo things a bit, to the extent I can, but I like my plot. Great minds think alike!

 

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